Recent community posts

Thank you, Max! That's very helpful! Sorry 5 isn't working for you (just in case there's confusion, it always pulls to the left unless you HOLD DOWN the button, which causes it to pull to the right (no tapping!)). Very early days and it's hardly the most original idea, but I appreciate your kind words!

Hey folks. I'm working on a little one-button multiplayer game called Spin Top Racers. I'm hoping to build and release this on a very fast schedule and I desperately need some feedback on the different control methods I've developed...

I've put the prototype up as a webplayer on Itch, which can be found here.

At the moment there's no AI, no lap or point detection. Instead, grab a friend (or three) and try to get around the track! If it's just yourself, no problems - I just really need to know how you find the controls!

Control your racer with the keys Q, U, Up Arrow and Keyboard 8. Apologies if you have a form of colour blindness, I'll account for that in later releases.

Reset the game by clicking on the 'Reset' button at the centre of the track.

Right now there are three control methods, 1, 1a, 2, 3, 4 and 5. Identifying the most comfortable/fun control method is crucial step and one I need to lock down at the moment.

If you get a chance to try the game and have time to respond, please let me know which control methods you prefer in order of preference, eg.

4, 3, 1a, 5, 2, 1.

I'm trying to make the game as accessible as possible to the widest range of experience, age and physical ability - a real family game!

Thanks so much for taking a look at this. It's at a very early stage, and the interactions are very simple, but I have to get this bit right first...!

First off, Itch is wonderful. The following is more of a curiosity than a serious issue, but it niggles me. I hope someone can explain this to me...

I made an example project to demonstrate my problem - a Unity Webplayer of resolution 960 x 600, using a default WebGL template and hosted on Itch as an embed with the resolution auto-detected. The demonstration only has a single screen with a number of blank, coloured UGUI 'panel' objects inset on top of each other to illustrate usable space at the edge of the screen.

With these settings, the Itch frame shows my project with the default WebGL template (and accompanying full-screen button), but in so doing pushes the top of my webplayer above the viewable space of the frame. You can see the missing space (marked by a blue box on the top of the screen) by clicking on the full-screen button. Additionally, the Unity WebGL label is partially obscured by the bottom of the frame.

When the project is not full-screen, the blue box cannot be seen. When it is full-screen, all the game content is visible.

I can avoid this by switching the web template to 'minimal' in Unity, and I can add a 'full-screen' button on top of the playable area in my Itch hosting settings, but this does not resize the play area to scale to full-screen, ultimately only obscuring the web page and overlaying the game area at an offset.

Is there any way to tidy up the Itch page and clearly show the whole of the play area in addition to the Unity label and fullscreen button?

If my issue is beyond fixing, no harm, no foul, I can adapt to 12 pixels off the top (...but it looks untidy...!). I can't seem to find references to this problem, so I'm making this thread - but if I've missed a bunch of discussions on this topic and it's a well-known problem with well-known solutions, then I'll apologise and slink back to my cave to implement that solution. =)

I've marked this as a question as I'm not sure if the problem is part of Itch or just my implementation.

Thanks for including non-Leap Motion controls for us peons! Really missed sound effects or music, but dat screenshake--! Great models, lovely cloud effect...! I managed to survive until the turret was out of sight... had to wait for it to come around again to finish me off. =)

Hilarious. My only problems were that a) it took me a few minutes to work out that I had to press 'Up' before I could enter the phone number and that b) I couldn't use my numeric keypad, sad face, frowny face. A really amusing script, perfectly executed and processed- like my family and puny human body.

Nice game - lots of content, which is GREAT. Difficulty progression was solid. Music is simple, but works with the theme; some nice sound effects as accompaniment! Art is lovely - the diamonds are especially tempting. Not sure what's happening with the lamps and at the end of the game I got looped back to the start... not sure if that's what I'm supposed to find?

Weird! Uh - lots of lovely models, kinda haphazardly assembled, great use of the growing ground plane, however...! Kickass intro and I loved the sound and music - first a Tardis, then a chiptune version of What Is Love...? =)

Hey, this looks fantastic (simple but effective models and particle effects!) and sounds great - but the thing I like the most is the random level generator! Unfortunately it can make some levels impossible to complete, but I'm sure you folks can tune that!

Kicking soundtrack! Was I seeing things or did I pick up a baseball bat in the cutscene, then have a machine gun in the game? Got half-way through the house and suddenly realised that nobody was shooting at me... felt guilty. In passive aggressive rage brought on by guilt, I killed the rest of the inhabitants.

I'm not really a fan of these types of games, but I had to admire how nicely this was put together - and in Unity, no less! Great use of the uGUI. Hmm. I dug Candy Box, for a bit... maybe I should give these games another go in the future...

This looks lovely and it's a nice use of the old Syndicate persuadatron mechanic. I never quite got to Nick, but I think you could do a lot more with this! I'll second Spenny - a few more levels with a nice difficulty curve would add a lot to the game.

Well, it looks brilliant, sounds brilliant - perfectly captures the voices of the Thumbs crew and, uh, uh, um, I can't play it because... I'm terrible at these sorts of games. I'll go back to it again shortly, but... as soon as I start to see a football pitch, my eyes glaze over. But the sheer amount of work and well-executed ideas is impressive as all hell - would love to see this taken further!

Hey there. Couldn't see a link to this on the forum, couldn't track you down there either - so I guess I'll say something here! Nice little prototype - I liked the music and sound effects. I think the idea of moving through different timelines based on speed could be really effective - would love to see more of this!

I don't think I understand this one. Love the particle effects and the trails and the colour scheme - that's gorgeous. But I don't think I know... what I'm supposed to be doing? It took me a bit of time to realise that I could WASD - up to that point I'd just been building and destroying what I thought was a shield around my core. Do you have any further plans for this?

I'm ashamed to admit, but I was broken by Beppo's Hole. It'll take a stronger man than me to make it to the top. The art is excellent, the portraits are a nice indicator of where to find the next platform but... gaaah, I just could not deal with the jumping sensitivity and the regular plunges to the pit of despair and also of meatballs. In addition, the double jump mechanics took me a bit of time to work out - the earlier you double jump, the greater the boost. Huh. Interesting.

Would like to see more. Especially an easy mode, for the humans among us? =)

Thanks for making this man! Love me some adventuring, even if the puzzles wander in the direction of cat hair moustache. =) By the way, dug the careful foreshadowing of the end when Buble declares that Jake is like blood to him. That's attention to detail, that is!

This is brill. Genuine giggles when I heard the Big Dog drone - a fantastic touch. I love the day/night cycle - it's a sadly mostly-neglected feature in Unity games, given how easy it is to set up. Love how clean and appealing your world is, but the star has to be Big Dog - the rigging, the animation, just perfect. I'm sure our robot masters will appreciate this one, once they've rid the earth of the carbon-based scum that infests it.

Would love to see further versions of the game - there's a lot of potential for a larger game here, infused with graveyard humour...

Really liked the look and sound of this, and the idea is solid - but I could not get left mouse button to work, which was a shame. I'll keep an eye on the project and try it again in a bit - I still hope to unmask that heinous fiend!

Enough cubes! The thumb wins! And thus is salacious! (A little known second meaning for 'salacious' is, 'thumb with most cubes'). Game really takes off once you get off the green board - the weird angled steps are for the hardcore only - no casuals allowed!

It's a hilarious idea, with some nice execution in places... but I think I really need some sound effects and more feedback if I'm going to invest time in learning how to pilot the craft. Awesome entry for the jam, though...!

WOOHOO I am a freakout pro. That said - is the speed the buttons appear at randomised? I had one game where I just could not keep up - letters and numbers kept flashing up at a super-superhuman rate. Awesome abstraction of that first-time-flight-simulator feel. Really dug the music, the speedlines and the famed virtual cockpit. =) Could you take this further? Whole commands to type, levers to pull with the mouse, etc...? Though that might be taking you towards something like Artemis...

Sweet. My own interpretation of the art style, the story and the mood/music was that we were seeing this guy's life through his note book - a sort of Secret Life of Walter Mitty for a down-and-out bagman in an eighties neo-noir. The style is immediately distinctive and it would allow you a great deal of latitude in how you treat your topic. The split between the unreliable narrator VISUALS and the presumably trustworthy audio/text would be really nice.

The only thing I could ask for is perhaps larger interaction hotspots and perhaps fewer overt instructions.

Additionally, gratz on working in Kelo. In truth, he's always there. And he always will be (cheesy horror sting).

Suuuper pretty. Those gradients. As the Thumbs might squeak, "So good". And I even managed to get a score of 102800, which is probably the highest score I've ever got in anything ever, so that's made my day. =)

This was splendid! Five links in, it was clear this was a formidable project. Structurally, I find working murder-mysteries the most difficult to plot - to execute that in Twine is, ack, gah, scary. The prose is nicely hardboiled, the characters distinct, the neon-scented chrome-finished dystopia of Neo New England was all that I had been promised by Bladerunner, Snatcher, Bladerunner The Game, Snatcher CD, Neuromancer and Shadowrun. That was a really good time - thanks. =)

This is really nice. It's INVENTIVE. Also, appealingly awkward - trying to coordinate the rgb keys with my actions was a little tricky. =) The animations are top notch, and I really dug the colour transformation fizzle on the main character. Really nice work - could do with seeing some more of this. I'm sure you could find lots of interesting mechanics by exploiting colours, colour mixing, chromatic aberration...

By the way, is there a secret I'm not good enough to get to left of the starting point? =D

That screenshake. Super satisfying shooting, zerofiftyone! The presentation was just through the goddamn roof, the Phaedrus reference was great and taking further action made me sit up and emit a quiet, worried, 'Hmm'. Awesome work, man

Enjoyed the intro. A lot. Got to the bit where LASTNAME (good last name) comes back from the Bodega and it says, "...looks like your partner was the victim of a..."

REV: Say it! SAY IT!

CYBER

PUNK

COP

KILLER

REV: YESSSS.

OBVIOUSLY the guy whose files appear to be innocent is the killer. Yes, search further and aha, OPEN THOSE COP KILLER FILES oh that's adorable. Okay, move on. Let's look at option three and WOAH. Okay. I am a good detective! Hmm. Well, if I choose to mete out my own brand of justice, then this will be a game called CYBER PUNK COP KILLER about a CYBER PUNK COP KILLER who kills CYBER PUNK COP KILLERs. That's irresistible.

REV: "John BigDog. Heh."

Woo. I liked that. Short, but atmospheric while breezy. Could definitely do with more.

I like this! I like this a lot! My initial instinct was that I'd hate trying to perform these tasks with a wobbly, fusty old mouse, but I had a pretty good time playing the game. I think a lot of credit can go to the music - really helped with the mood. Perhaps a tool akin to the ZBrush (or just cg sculpting) lazy-mouse (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uoLBI0J33jE) would be a good addition to ease out some of the mouse jitters? I could also have done with a better indication of which circle to start with - marking the circle as black just didn't attract my attention (...what does that say about me? Hmm. =( ) Otherwise... might have been fun to add some ratings for player performance. I might only get "Shitty Wizard" in this game, but the rating would still make me laugh. =)

That was a lot of content. Man. I think my favourite was Dot Gobbler, as I've a lotta nostalgia for Eye of the Beholder II, but... man. They're all good. I didn't really understand what was going on with The Holo Violator, but the art made me yearn for a socket in my forehead and a guitar jack to plug into it. Also dug The Wizard - the appearance of REDACTED scared the heck out of me. Also, also: so nice to see an unironic Thanks Obama. =) Would love to see more!